Naturally, I expected to walk home after the appointment, since my father was busy. As I started walking in the opposite direction Pierre was, I suddenly felt a hand grab my sleeve.
"Where are you going?" Pierre asked.
"Home?" I asked, because I didn't know what else to say. It seemed obvious enough to me.
"Can you come with me?" He asked, letting go of my shirt sleeve. "I know you probably want to go home now, but I... I don't really want to go meet them, but I want to. So, can you come?"
I shrugged. "Sure."
We headed across the parking lot and to Pierre's car. It was red and shiny, like the kind of car a rich kid would have. I didn't bother paying attention to the brand he had.
We both climbed into the front, and he started driving. When we got to the front of Roland's old school, the one which he jumped off of, the campus was completely empty except for two people.
A boy and a girl. They seemed to be arguing. I figured they were Roland's friends, since they were by that tree with no leaves. We parked, and when we got closer, I saw that it was them.
"I told you that Devon wasn't good! It's not my fault that he-" Anna was saying.
Ajax shot back, "You told me what you told me because of stupid jealously. You didn't even believe it yourself at the time, so don't go pretending you knew what's what."
Anna clenched her teeth, and then he untensed, and looked towards the ground. "You're right, absolutely right. I'm sorry."
Ajax said something which I couldn't hear, and then said, "Well, anyways, Roland's little brother should be here soon."
"Pierre." Anna said, and Ajax nodded.
"I'm already here." Pierre said from the two inches away we stood from them.
The two spotted us and closed the distance. "Hey, there." Anna said amicably, but Ajax cut straight to the point.
"We didn't come to Roland's funeral. We're sorry." He said.
Pierre snorted. "Yeah, it was visibly noticeable. There were fourteen of you, and no one came."
Anna decided to take the reins. "I know you must be mad at us, and frankly, I would hate myself, too. We were... still are, really, in bad situations. A lot was happening. My mother and father had a lot going on with their marriage, and it affected me as well.
"The 'school trip' didn't help, either. Getting lost for a long while with no way home..." She shivered, and Ajax continued when she got a lost look on her face.
"The point is, the lot of us were going through a lot of things at home before the trip, and the trip just made it worse. Things are horrible between the fourteen of our homes.
"There was a wedding, and of course, if you had to choose between wedding or funeral, you'd choose funeral, right? Well, our parents didn't know we knew Roland... and we couldn't tell them...
"The things he was doing - the things we all were doing, everyone shunned us for it, but it's not like we had a choice. Everyone was dragged into everything, we didn't enter willingly."
Anna sighed, and put a hand on Ajax's shoulder. He didn't show any signs of noticing.
"I know you probably don't believe me, but we didn't have a choice. Not one of us. Our story, it ended off with a good ending, but not without sacrifices."
He whispered the last sentence not to us, but to himself. I looked up at Pierre, who wore a stony expression.